Improvement in breech-loading fiee-aems



' W. MORGENSTERN.

Breebh Loading Fire A rm Patented Feb. 18, 1865 gotten gtatcs garnet@ffirt.

WILLIAM noaenns'rsan, or PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO ERNSTVON JEINSEN, on NEW Y K, Y.

Letters Patent No. 74,712, dated February) 18, 1868.

IMPROVEMENT IN BREEGH-LOADING FIRE-ARMS.

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TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM Mon-oiixsrsnw, of the city ofPhila-delphia,in the county of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, haveinvented a new and-useful Improvement in Breecl'l-Loading Fire-Arms; andI do hereby declare that the following is.a. full, clear, and exactdescription thereof, which will enable those skilled in the art-to makeand use the same; referencebeing had to the accompanying drawing,forming part of this specification, in which drawing- I Figure 1 is anaxial section of a breech-loading fire-arm, made according to myinvention, the breech-block having been thrown up and the breech openedFigure 2 is a like section showing the breech closed.

Figure 3 is a plan view of the'interior of thereccivenas it appearswhen-the.breech-block is up.

Figure 4 is a horizontal section, the breech-block being down in thepositioii occupied by it when it closes the breech.

Figure 5 is a detailed view of the'pin '8, whose head, P, is seen intig.3.

Similar letters indicate corresponding parts. I

The letter a designates the barrel of' the gun, and b designates thereceiver which connects the barrel and stock to each other. Thetop' ofthe re.ceiver -has an opening which extends across it, which'openingreceives the breech-piece c. Said breech-piece is hinged on one of itssides to the'receiver by means of a pin, 8, which is reduced in itsdiameter at the places marked tt, so as to diminish the wearing-surfaceand obviate the liability of the pin to stick fast by reason of rust,byreduciug the surface contact of the said hinge pin, and therebyfacilitate the removal of thepin when the gun is to be takenapart. .Thesides ot' the receiver are cut down at i the place of the openingsnflicieutly to receive the breech-block, which, when it is down in itsplace,- fills the opening so that its outer surface coincides with theouter surface of the receiver. The ends of the breech-block are square,as are also the ends of the opening in the receiver, and consequentlythe rear end of the breech 1 block has a firm recoil bearing in a directline with the borc of the gun, The breech-block has o'n'its lower side ahollow space, which receives thefiring-pin it. From' the rear side ofthe firing-pin extends a springarm, I whose free end is widened into ablock, q, of peculiar form, as seen in figs. 1 and 4, its forward endhaving a shoulder, against which the hammer d strikes in cocking, so asto draw back the firing-pin within the wall of the breech-block, andstart and raise the breech-block alittle distance. The spring-block 9 extends backwards to the rear of the breech-block, at the same timeapproaching its hinged'side, The adjacent side of block 9 is curved, asat 9', opposite to a hollow curve, n, formed on the inside ofthebreech-block. The forward portion of the hinged side of the breech-blockhas also a concavityor hollow curve, m, which is separated from theother, n, by an angle, 0, which occurs about opposite the shoulder ofthespring-block q. i The lock is contained in the receiver beneath thebreech-hlock, as seen in the drawing. The letter designates the hammerand tumbler, made in one piece, which turns on a pin, it, that extendsthrough thesides of the receiver, and carries'at one end, outside of thereceiver, the thumb-piece, (seen inred outline in figl 1,) by which thehammer is cocked. The main-spring iis connected with the front part ofthe hammer by a swivel-hook, and said spring extends fori ward beneaththe breech part of the barrel, as is shown clcarlyin the drawing. Theletter e designates the serc. 1 which is placed behind the'tumbler, andengages notches thereon in the usual way. The s'ereturns on a pin, 1),and is forced towards the tumbler by the sere springf. From the upperpart of the sere an arm, g, which is preferably rigid, extends upwardsinto a. slot or. opening made in the back part of the receiver. Thedotted outline in figs.,1 and 2 shows the arm in the said opening. Theupper free'end of said arm 9 is provided with a hook or projection,which extends in a forward direction, so that it-ca'n engage thebreech-block c and lock it in the receiverht certain times, assecn infig. 2, the projecting end of the arm entering a horizontal openingornotch made in the rear end ofthe breech-block, as clearly shown in thatfigure. The times when the breechblock is thus locked are when the. soreis drawn down by the trigger in the act of firing, when the said arm isthrown forward into the notch of the breech-block. Whcn the sore isinthe positionrcqnired to bring the hammer to full cock, the army isthrown back from the breech-block, and the latter is then free to be,swung outwards from the receiver. The letter ,7' designates theshell-extractor, which slides on ash elf provided for it in thereceiver, a littlebe lo'w the level of the bottom of-tho. bore of thebarrel. The forward end of the extractor .is formed with a right-anglededge, curved to fit the shell, which edge is allowed to come forward ofthe place' occupied by 'the rim of the cartridge, by reason of a. cutmade for that purpose in the breech of the barrel, as shown in figs. 1and 4. The rear end of the extractor extends alongside of the hammer,over acurved shoulder, 7i, formed on the side of said hammer, asillustrated in the drawing, and the extractor is started and drawn awayfrom the brecch'a sufficient distance to disengage and start theshell,'in the operation of cocking the hammer after firing, by means ofa hook, W, formed on said shoulder, which hook engages a reverse hook, 3on the end of the extractor. The completion of the backward movement ofthe extractor is effected by a spring, is, whose free end engages theunder side of the extractor in a notch, Z, formed, in this example, bytwo pins, between which the free end of said spring enters loosely orwithout being fastened. The bottom or foot of the forward pin Z and theend of spring lc'are bevelled in opposite directions, and they are soconstructed in rela-., tion to each other that when the shell-extractoris forward at its place in the breech, the spring is bent in the samedirection by the pins until'the-bevelled end of the spring rests on thebevelled bottom or foot of'the said pin, in which position the springdoes not exertany force to draw the extractor forward, but when thelatter has been started by the hammer-hook W, the end of the springenters the notch formed by the pins, and immediately exerts its force todraw the extractor further away from the breech. The small end or needleof the firing-pin is, in this example, placed in such a position as tostrike the cartridge on its circumference, but it can-be, if desired,s'o placed as to strike the centre of the cartridge, or wherever elsethe fulminating-rnaterial may be located. The act of closing the breechby shutting down the breech-block will bring the hammer to half-cock orto full-cock, according to the position of the notches on the tumbler,because the swell of the curved part it, towards the angleor point 0,has a tendency to drive the hammer backwards, in order to allow thebreech-block to shut, the curved side 9' of the spring-block allowingthe hammer to pass and to force the said spring-block q to one side farenough for the purpose. In this example the closing of the breech-blockforces the hammer backwards past the position of full-cock, and thehammer, as soon as the breech-block is shut, is drawn forwards by themain-spring 1', so that the nose of the hammer is alongside the angle orpoint 0.

On firing the gun the hammer passes between the curved side of thebrecchblock andthe spring-block q without interference or hindrance,because at this time the breech-block is shut downsquarely, and thehammer has an uninterrupted passage between these parts. On pulling backthe hammer in cooking it, the nose of the hammer'strikes against theshoulder of the spring-block,'which is thereby pushed backwards untilits rear end strikes the rear wall of the breech-block, when saidspring-block becomes stationary, and the further backward movement ofthe hammer, by pressing against said shoulder, forces the breech-block alittle distance upwards, and causes it to turasufliciently to bring theangle 0 in the path of the hammer, when the latter, continuing t movebackwards, comes against the curved part m, an d throws the breech-blockoutwardsgon its hinge to the position seen in fig. 1. In order to firethe gun the breech-block must be entirely down in its place, and if itis raised high enough above its place in the receiver to bring the angle0 before the hammer, any forward movement of the latter causes it topress against the curved part n and force the breech-block up so thatthe hammer cannot reach the firing-pin. The curved parts m and n, beforeand behind the angular point 0, allow the hammer to act upon thesaidpoint, and to operate the breech-block with diminished friction. Thebree hblock, after it has been shut down, is prevented from rising fromthe receiver, and is securely held down byflle combined action ofthehammer and the angular point 0, when the hammer is at full orhalf-coek,'and by the hammer and the straight portion of the saidbreech-bloclg'which is forward of the curve or hollowed part m, when thehammer is down after firing. This result is obtained by the position, ofthe hammer, in the first inst nce, alongside the point 0, which pointcomes down so low at the side of the hammer as to prevent thebreech-block from turning over or past the nose of the hammer; and inthe second instance, by the position of the hammer alongside the forwardpart of the interior of the breechsblock, where the curve in isso-slight that thereis not room for the breech-block to turn over orpast the nose of the hammer. When the hammer is moving f r rd in the actof firing, th'e breech block is locked by the arm 9 of the sore, asbefore explained.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is- I 1. Theangular poin o in the interior of the breech-block, in combination withthe hammer d, substantially as described.

2. I. also claim the spring-block q, in combination with the hammer d,substantially as described.

3. I also claim the hollow curves in n, before and behind the angularpoint a, substantially as described.

4:. I also claim the hooked arm g, forming part of the sore, andoperated by it, said arm being arranged to work in a recess formed inthe receiver 1), and by means of its hook to engage the breech-block onits rear side, substantially as described. t

5. Ialso claim locking the breech-block beforefiring by the combined'action of the hammer and the ro jector O, and also locking it afterfiring by the combined action of the hammer and the straight side ofsaid block forward of the hollowed part m, substantially as described.

This specification signed by me; this twenty-second dayv of May, 1867.

WILLIAM MORGENSTERN.

Witnesses:

W. HAUFF, G. BERG.

